The Rev. John Sullivan Dwight, later famous as a music critic, was a prominent member of the Brook Farm Community, West Roxbury, Mass., 1841-47, and one of the editors of its journal, the Harbinger. The letters in this collection were written to him by various persons during the period of the Brook Farm experiment, with many of them dealing with life in the community and Fourierism.

The originals of this correspondence are held by the Boston Public Library, and were microfilmed for Professor Arthur E. Bestor, Jr., in 1942. He in turn donated this microfilm to the Survey in 1956.